The Dale Jr. Download - 180 - Damn Those Debris Cautions

Episode Date: June 20, 2017

Dale Jr. recaps a top-10 run in a Michigan race that sparked much debate because of numerous debris cautions. He also weighs in on the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing match and answers fan questions during the Ask Jr. segment. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Dale Jr. And you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Man, it's a good song. It is a good song. Oh, you like it. Yeah. I picked it. You've become a fan now.

I've picked it. Okay. What do you mean now? I liked it before. That's, I should leave right now by the Dangerous Summer, courtesy of Hopeless Records. This is Dale Jr., and that's Tyler Overstreet, our co-host for the Dale Jr. download. Hello? Here in a big hurry today.

We got a busy day, man. Most of our Tuesdays are pretty busy I think you just need to calm down It's a little early to be rushing people It's only 8 o'clock I've been up for two hours He wanted to start the show before anybody ever got Into the gift shop

We've got about 30 folks out here Everybody's wide and awake this morning Yeah He wanted to start the show without y'all I just want you to know Oh my gosh He did he said it you know You're already being a heckler

Okay I'm just talking facts It's not even 8 a.m. I know we don't least We tell everybody to We're going to start to show at 8. We don't tell anybody that. We do. On social media, people ask all the time,

are y'all going to do the show at Junior Motorsports? Yes, 8 o'clock. 8 o'clock. Tuesday. 8 a.m. It's 7.57. Yep. Let's get to the show.

Okay. Talk about what we're going to talk about. Well, talk about what we're going to talk about. Michigan. That's great direction. That's what I do. Michigan, we finish ninth. We finished 11th or better,

last three of the last four. Is that an amazing stat? I see you put that down on the show shit. It's not very impressive stat. It's an improvement over the four races before. What were those finishes? They were like 20th and a couple in the 30s. Yeah.

Got to highlight, this is a PR spin. Yeah. So we unloaded fast. The car was quick all weekend. We actually, you know, we didn't qualify as well as I thought we would, we would, but But certainly have some ideas on how to get a little better there. So when we go back, that's going to be important because you really couldn't pass in this race. Yeah, it seemed more so than past couple years.

Like, one time Larson got shuffled back to fifth, and he ran fifth. Yeah. Which that wasn't encouraging to see that you couldn't pass. Yeah. So it was hard to pass. I don't really, you know, the cars were really. locked into the racetrack and we had a lot more grip. I remember running this race last year.

Same race, same arrow package pretty much. And the cars were sliding all over the place last year. It was slick, hard to get a hold of. Fun. But this year, as soon as we got there, man, we were in a throttle hard in the corner, locked down into the track, not nowhere near is slick and lacking grip as we were the same last year. So we found that much more arrow

since... So the teams have just adjusted to this new package. They've gained back the arrow that they took away. Some of it anyways. And also, one of the things that I think contributed to that was the track drugged the tire monster around before we got there and laid down a bunch

of rubber with this tire monster. But only in the groove that we run. Because that makes sense. Like it's a one groove track and they work in the one groove that's worked in. So if I had... How do you think that meeting goes, though?

Like, I got this great idea. We're going to run the tire monster, but we're only going to do it right here. Right. I don't know really what the purpose of that was. I mean, it looked like they put a lot of effort and time into doing it. I would have spent that time working in a groove that was not being used, maybe just a little bit higher in turns one and two,

in turns three or four to give guys a wider groove. presenting more opportunities to pass. They just made the single groove stronger. Yeah. And the only time there was really two grooves is on like a restart, and that was for about half a lap. Yeah. I was just surprised by that.

Maybe they will, before we go back, we go back in like two months. So maybe they will burn in a top groove? Not a lot of, I don't hold out a whole lot of hope. Oh. The good things like that will happen. It just, I don't know. I mean, I was really confused by that, amused. What I didn't like is the two tires was so prevalent.

Well, that's been the case since they repaved it. I know. The tire is so hard because we go so fast there. You have to have a really, really hard tire, or else it's going to blister, come apart, blow the right front out. We blew a lot of right fronts there until they figured out how to get the tire dialed in. Yeah, and you guys are running like 215 down the front.

Yeah. So, yeah. You don't want the tire blowing out. So that's why the tire, you know, the two tires works because they really don't wear. So as long as they, you know, you get a caution comes out and you get the temperature out of the tire. It almost runs as fast and sometimes not faster. In practice, that's what happens. Every time we come in and out of the pits, we go out and run faster.

Yeah, I noticed that, yeah. So they need to, you know, if they weren't going to use that tire monster, Don't work in the groove that's already there. Try to widen your racetrack out. Like create multiple grooves. I mean, seems like that would be obvious. We restarted 24th with 10 laps to go. 18th with 5 laps to go.

Ended up 9th. Pretty good rebound. We're actually running 12th when that debris caution came out with 20 to go. And then pitted for two tires. And then came back in because there was another caution real quick. I won't lie. I was a little worried when we were 24th because I was like, man, we've ran really well all day.

And now we're just stuck back here. But fortunately, we got that outside line on the last two restarts. Yeah, that was really important. It's a good point. Starting on the inside was awful. Probably the worst that I've ever seen it as far as having a lane choice.

You had to be really aggressive, and you saw a lot of guys doing that in one and two that were in the bottom. They would try to slide up into the second groove and try to force their way into that outside line just to kind of maintain. Yeah. You see a lot of guys really getting loose down there

and Blaney had some trouble on a restart down there, getting loose. The five got loose in front of us one time. Costs a lot of spots for me and him. Really, really edgy and hard to make any ground on the bottom groove in one and two on restarts. That's really what saved our day. was being able to start in that outside line

and take advantage of the new tires. So we passed a lot of cars there late in the race. But we brought up the fact that we were running 12th when that debris caution came out, and that was not the only debris caution of the tank. Yeah. That was something that stirred up quite a bit of conversation after the race, which I thought was fun conversation.

You had guys, Nate Ryan and other people talking about debris, caution, how they've changed over the years, how drivers and fans and media kind of feel about this. Obviously, we heard from NASCAR, Scott Miller put out a quote, you're pretty much your standard quote. That they do it for safety and whatnot like that. So Tony Stewart was upset because of Clint Boyer and Danica were taken out in accidents after that debris yellow. And Harvick was in one too.

And Harvick. understandable why he'd be pissed. From a viewer's standpoint, it's annoying, but then, I mean, there's, I guess it's just like anything else. It depends on how it affects your driver, on how you view that. See, that's what I don't, I think that's the, that's, I watched NASCAR America and they were talking about this. Everybody looks at it from, everybody looks at it like two ways. Well, it's a safety thing. if you're going to side with NASCAR and say, well, it's a safety thing.

If you're looking out there and it's like, well, it might be a water bottle. It might not. I don't really buy that because with the technology we have, with a freaking $100 pair of binoculars, you're going to be able to see exactly what's on the racetrack from anywhere on the racetrack. There's not a piece of debris that's going to be out on the racetrack, but it's not identifiable. I'm sorry. They have, yeah, I mean, they have turn spotters. Yeah.

I got guys on the roof. You could tell. You could tell whether it's tape, paper, a bag, a sheet metal. You could tell. I'm sorry, there's not going to be a piece that's not identifiable. And if someone's working in a corner and cannot identify something that is either a sheet metal or a water bottle, maybe they should probably be doing something else during the race. That's true.

Yeah. The only thing they could identify was the cowboy hat. but what I wanted to say was is there's two there seems to be two point two different sides of this battle or argument I guess or discussion is you side with NASCAR is it's a safety thing or um you know it how does it affect the drivers right it affected uh some of Tony Stewart's gang adversely, right? Blaney got in a wreck because of it. He was running top five.

I don't think that that's the right way to look at it. I'm not complaining about debris cautions because it may either help or hurt my day. I don't care. I'm putting my personal gain or loss aside. Forget about that, whether it helped me or hurt me. The debris caution coming out at that particular time, I think, it takes the

and I hate to use this word because it's a little bit strong but I think it takes some of the integrity out of the event is that like it's it's a bit I mean it's obviously

a show but it's not it's a bit too much going into the entertainment world whereas we're a comp it's a competition right right and it's a bit it manipulates a little bit how this race is going to end

yeah because it's like the second stage, they let it run all the way through, no cautions. But then you get to the third one and you get closer to the checkered flag. And then it's like, oh, we better throw one. This is spread out. There's an argument that there's less debris cautions this year than last year. All right. Why is that?

The only reason why there are less is because we have the stage cautions. There are two additional cautions this year in every race than there were last year. so the less necessary for NASCAR to throw the debris yellows. The timing of them a lot of times is what pisses me off. So, okay, it helped us on Saturday for Elliot Sadler. I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that outlook. It helped us.

It hurt us. I know, but I'm just saying, so the timing of them, they threw one with three laps to go in a stage. Right. Open the pits and finish the stage. Yeah, so they opened the pit with three or four laps to go. Yeah, this is a great one. And so Sadler, who was running third, he had not let a lap all day, I don't think. The Kozlowski and Hamlin pit, he stays on track, had not let a lap all day, and he gets a playoff point.

Which that's good for us, but it's stupid that the caution came out. Yeah, they had to run three more laps and get a caution for the end of the stage. Right. You had a caution coming out in three laps. see i don't even if that even though that helped us i think it was stupid to throw that caution unnecessary right because i mean i understand oh you're gonna mix up the strategies whatever if that's the logic behind it i don't even remember what the the um actual debris was yeah but it's just um you're gonna get you got two minutes to run three laps there so it was about to come out

that's frustrating um and it's not the first time they've done it especially lately i think they did it end of Dover's stage. There's, um, there are less debris yellows, but that's because there's two extra yellows that weren't there last year. So right. In essence, there's still just as many preemptive cautions or staged cautions. I saw where Nate Ryan, you'll never, go ahead. That one of the debris cautions was like five laps and then like a caution for an actual wreck

was four laps. Yeah, they said they found additional debris during the debris caution to tack on an extra, you know, allow the need for another lap one of those late cautions on sunday they it appeared to be a plastic bag not even a big one and they extended the caution one extra lap that's what i'm saying yeah which is ridiculous they found additional debris there's no win or losing to this debate there's no i mean i guess the only way that this really changes is if the uproar from the fan base gets loud enough nothing that drivers or media say is really going to change the mentality of a debris yellow. I find it really an interesting conversation.

As I noted on Twitter, I used to go to the races into 80s and 90s. There'd be crap laying all over the track, and they would run. They would keep the green out because you wanted to see the cars race. People hated when the caution came out. Right. I mean, they don't show up to watch cars when. 60 mile an hour. They can see that on the interstate.

Yeah. And these days, um, we have the ability to understand viewership and how cautions, restarts, racing green flag, long green flag runs affect the viewership. Yeah,

and they have like social media analytics and whatnot that can tell you like conversation does spike when there's a caution. Yep. Slash restart. That is what's driving the change in mentality over the last 10 years. That alone. and so, but I think that it's going to cycle back because you're hearing a little bit more and more complaints from the fans

that, you know, if there's debris caution, they want to see the debris, they want to know why there's a debris caution. They don't like a debris caution come out without being able to see the purpose for the caution. You're never, I'm just going to be one of those guys that you're never going to get me to believe that all debris cautions are legit. No, I mean, I don't, I don't know. that they would even tell you.

Well, I guess they would tell you they are, but... Of course, yeah, they're going to tell you they are. They would have no proof. And it's going to be... We need to be able to see proof. Well, yeah, and there's going to be that caution that's the trash bag or that's the hot dog wrapper. There's going to be those debris cautions, and their view on that is, well, we couldn't tell

what it was. Well, then like you said, they need to find better people. Yeah. If you can't see it... Well, I don't... I just don't know whether I believe the whole story. Anyways, I really, really enjoyed the conversation about that throughout the afternoon after the race. I thought it was healthy.

And it's a debate that's raged long and hard for a long time. Probably won't get too much into it this weekend. We're going to go to the road course at Sonoma. You're not going to have a lot of debris cautions. There's going to be enough action on the track where NASCAR won't feel necessary to be looking for this debris. and then we'll go on to Daytona. And again, probably, you know, won't feel the necessity to have debris caution there because there's constant action in that particular race.

So the debris cautions will be back at Kentucky. Yeah. When we go to Kentucky, we'll have the debris cautions return. And so we'll just move on from that discussion. Anyways, we had a good week before Michigan. Amy got on a bike and went for a ride. We rode 18 miles together. 18 miles.

Right off the first ride. Yeah. But her bike is an e-bike. So when she... Like the eBay? It's an electric bike. It's a strong word. That doesn't mean to say that it's got a throttle where you just mash the gas and go.

It actually only propels you when you pedal the pedals. So when you turn the crank, then it's... sort of has an assist. And so when I'm kind of raging up the hills, she goes right up on them hills with me, if not by me. She actually kind of goes up the hills faster than I do. Interesting.

She goes up the hills actually faster than she goes down. Because she kind of scared to go fast downhill, but she goes fast uphill. That's reverse. I know it. Well, that'll take some time. She'll get used to going fast downhill. Do eventually, do you turn off the electric part?

She lets me know sometimes she goes up heels without it. Oh, is that like something, is that like a removable part? Nope. Oh, that's just how the bike is. Yes, that's how the bike works. Well, you can turn up the strength of this assist, or you can turn it off completely. It's a very heavy bike, though, so it's going to be a real hard challenge to use it without the assist. But she does.

I've been trying to get her into cycling and using this e-bike was a great entry into it for her. So is she going to get one like yours? Eventually. This is how I see this going. So she's going to use this e-bike for a while. She doesn't like to clip in with the pedals. That's understandable, yeah. So she uses the cages where you stick the toe into the end of the cage, right?

That seems dangerous. Nope, it's not. Your foot comes right in and out. It's just a little cage, a little muzzle for your foot. And she'll do this for a while. she'll eventually probably get rid of the e-bike and get a normal bike with cages. And then I think about two or three years down the road, she's going to get to where she's clipping in. Because with the clip in, you can push and pull with your feet.

You actually use both your hamstrings and your thigh muscles too. Alex Bowman told me that the first time he used the clip in, he got to a stoplight and couldn't clip out and fell on space car. You're supposed to clip out rolling up to the stoplight. Not once you get stopped. Yeah, I mean, you... I was good to tell you, you posted a picture of y'all biking or cycling. Yeah. And, you know, have ever seen the thing where it shows, like, how a gentleman walks with his lady down the sidewalk?

And the gentleman is supposed to be, like, closer to the road. Yeah. The picture, Amy was closer towards the center line, which I thought that was not very chivalrous of you. I can't steer her bike. I know, but you could have moved over. and be like, hey, we're going to take a selfie, and she could have been on this side. I was concerned for her safety, and I didn't want you to look non-chivalrous. Well, when you're out there biking with us, you can make sure that you ride in the proper lane.

Oh, wait, you don't bike. I know. It's an expensive hobby. Okay. And it's not. I mean, Tim Dugger just bought a bike. He's out there riding. He rode five miles.

He's a singer. He rode five miles more than you this week. Oh, that's okay. I walked it. No, you didn't. I walked a lot. You're telling a lie. What?

I do a lot of walking at the racetrack. Like normal walking, like daily walking is not counted as exercise. That's not what my Apple Watch tells me. You have an additional exercise. Your Apple Watch is telling you lies. You have one too? I know, but I don't.

You don't base it off of that? I don't count just walking around in rooms and stuff and down hallways. Steps. Steps don't count. Oh my gosh. Oh, I just said, oh my gosh, there's a guy on Twitter and you're like the drinking game.

Oh, he's probably pretty hammered by now. Yeah. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Pretty excited about that. We're also, today we're going to go to Blaney's podcast. Blaney invited me on his podcast. Are you jealous? Am I jealous that you got invited than I?

Yeah. I didn't. I wouldn't expect to get invited. Why? You're a co-hosts of this podcast. I know, but it's not the Dale Jr. download with Tyler Overschrist. It's just a Dale Jr. download. Okay.

Nobody has ever called it the Dale Jr. download with Tyler. help. You're going to go along and you're going to watch. I'm going to watch and learn. They have a totally different format. Yeah. And they just sit down and start talking and then they end. They just ramble.

It's like a morning show without commercials or music. Oh. Rambling, not in a bad way. Like, it's a good show. They just talk. They just talk. They don't do. I guess we do that too, but I feel like we have like segments maybe.

Yeah. Yeah. I anticipate maybe we could get a new studio out of this. I've seen a little bit of their studio before. We just got a new studio. No, I know, but they have a different setup. Maybe we'll like their setup better. Yeah, it looks expensive.

You got the money. We have a sponsor, Exalta. Yeah. Well, maybe Exalta would like the Exalta Studio to receive another. I think they probably would look at our studio and rather have this. Maybe. A couch and being able to kick back. And wires everywhere.

Well, your side's not a whole lot of fun, but mine is. Oh. Is this a deal? Like you go on Blaney's, Blaney comes on our show? Yeah, so we're going to go on his, create some content for ours. We're really doing this selfishly to help our podcast. Did they know that? I think that it works better.

I don't know if they know that, but I think it works best for us to go second. So we'll be able to talk about whatever we dug up on his podcast. Last week would have been a good opportunity. And I was trying to remind myself during the Michigan race, not to run into Blaney. I thought about that. He pushed you down the front stretch. Yeah, a couple times. Yeah.

Me and him both kind of passing guys working together. Yeah, I was like, don't run into Blaney because we've got to go on his podcast. Because if I run into him, then we'll probably cancel the podcast. No, they wouldn't. Well, they would probably say maybe it's not a good idea that I come on this week. Oh, we have a change of plans. Yeah, let's let this kind of cool off a little bit and then have you on later. Have you ever, like, so from time to time, people will fly back with us.

like Brad Kozlowski is supposed to fly home with us this week. Have you ever ran into that guy in the middle of the race? I guess it would be similar to this Blaney thing. To where you had to have an immediate interaction? I don't think so. That would be super awkward. Well, you're really smiling, so I know you're hoping it happens. I hope you bump Kozlowski this week for the win.

Yeah, because he's riding with us to Sonoma. Yeah. Well, I don't want him to win. I don't want to wait on him, so he can wait on us. Okay. Well, for a win, yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't have a problem with that, but just like in the middle of the day, run a 10th and 11th?

Oh, no, that would be unnecessary. Yeah. Run them off the track somewhere. It'd be awkward. It'd be a terrible, long, long ride home. Mayweather and McGregor announced that they're going to fight. Everybody's talking about this. Yeah, everybody on Twitter and social media and in the news are talking about this is a big money grab.

Nobody's given McGregor much of a chance. there was a video Oh, you are, there's a video of him sparring. Have you seen that? Maybe that would change your mind. Well, I don't, yeah. Did you see it?

I saw the video, I just don't know how recent it was. You think he's learned enough to be? Yes. You really think, after watching that video that he's learned enough to win?

That's not his only sparring session. Yeah, but this guy is 49 and 0. It don't matter. McGregor's 0 and 0. And you think that he's going to learn how to box in 12 months even there might be a chance

you're crazy no people thought are you trying to have a difference the last time that McGregor fought in UFC everybody he went up a weight class and everybody's like oh he's gonna that is the UFC Tyler that's what he does

I know but he wasn't out there kicking that guy in the face he was punching him in the face but he almost lost that fight no he didn't Diaz no uh what Alvare Eddie Alvarez He knocked him out in the second round. Yeah, he's won all.

I know he's won some fights in the UFC. He's not going to beat Mayweather. He doesn't have a chance. Mayweather's defenses. He's got a chance. No, he doesn't. Mayweather's defense is too good. Mayweather's going to punch him once.

This is? Oh, I'm winning the round, and he's going to dance around the ring for three minutes. So you're saying Mayweather's going to win? If he, no, he's not. So when what? McGregor's going to win. It's going to be a huge upset. How is he going to win?

he's going to punch him in the face. He will have to knock him out. McGregor won't win it on the decision. You're contradicting the hell out of yourself. No, McGregor is going to win. By knockout. By knockout. He's not, no, if it goes 12 rounds.

Is he going to win or is he not going to win, Tyler is going to win? By knockout? By knockout. All right. Write it down. In about the eighth round. Social media is going to have fun with you. Mayweather is the easy way out.

It's not. It's not, I don't really care either way because I'm watching the triple G fight. I'm not spending a dime on this Mayweather McGregor mess. I'm hoping not. I'm just going to find somebody that is and I'll just go watch it with him. Yeah, I'm not paying an any money for that. I got, they got me on the Mayweather Pachial fight. They ain't getting me again.

Yeah, that was, that was an awful fight. Yeah. I think, I think McGregor will be aggressive, whereas Pachial was pretty calculated. I think Mayweather will probably be aggressive because it was, going to be so easy. Really? Yeah. You think he'll knock?

I think he'll go in there aggressively because it's going to be easy to hit Connor, as we saw in the video of him sparring, and he's not going to have as much concern for really defending himself. I just don't think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch. You think Mayweather will knock him out? I doubt it. You think it'll be a classic Mayweather fight? Classic Mayweather fight.

He'll hit him. a couple times. Yeah. Dance around and it'll go 12 rounds. That's boring. Well, that's why boxing is dying. Boxing is not dying because there's a great fight that is actually happening this year, Triple G and Canelo. Yeah.

Now that, that's two of the best going at it pretty much in their prime. I think Triple G is on the backside of that hill, but still undefeated. Is Triple G? He is. Yeah. They're both putting their reputations and their reputations. their records on the line. And that's how it should be, in my opinion. And even if it is a one-sided fight,

it's definitely a fight that the fans deserve and the fans want to see. Yeah, they've been trying for this. Pure boxing fans are probably really looking forward to this particular fight, and I'm one of them. Did you know that Triple G follows me on Twitter? That's pretty cool. That is cool.

He was super nice when we met him. He is a good guy. I'm a big Triple G fan. this is going to be the toughest fight that he's ever had. It'd be interesting to see how the odds shape up for that. On the McGregor or Mayweather, do you think that either one of them fights again, either, like, win or lose?

Do you think either one of them will fight again? Mayweather definitely won't fight again. This is going to give him 50 and O, which will actually... I think that's the record. Yeah, that'll be the record. And that's probably all he wants. He's looking at this as a really easy way to get that. and he's already copyrighted the 50 and O for marketing and so forth.

So he's looking past Connor. And I definitely think that he doesn't come back out of retirement after this. He markets himself for the rest of his life as the only fighter at 50 and O and the best pound profound that has ever played the game. Connor probably doesn't fight again because he doesn't have to. Like even a UFC Why are you going to fight for However much a UFC fight is

When you've fought for this much Yeah Either one of those guys They only You know They get in the fight game To make money To win

To be a champion They've all both achieved that They're going to have more money than they can ever spend And There's really no incentive For either one of them I think To get back into the ring To take a beating

even if they, because regardless of how successfully the one of them's been, they both, you know, you get beat up pretty good in there, even when you're winning. And neither one of them need to take that abuse. Right. Especially, McGregor, what's he going to, he's not going to go down and fight whoever in UFC again. Yeah. Because he's not going to make, you know, you're not going to see, he's not going to see these kind of numbers financially in any other fights, you know, after this.

And I just don't think he'll come out of. Unless he goes broke, unless he needs the money. He's spending it. Yeah. Five years down the road, if he's like, oh, my guy, where'd all my money go? You might see him back in USC. That's sad. I'm a big Conner fan, though.

Look at Diaz. Okay, Nate Diaz, he's not coming out. He's not coming out to fight guys because he didn't have to. He's holding out for the third fight with the bigger. He's holding out for money. He's holding out for a good money fight. If he, you know, if you listen to anything that he says on social media, his comments are I got a lot going on right now.

He's got things going on outside the ring. He used the notoriety and marketing and celebrity that he gained from fighting Connor to give him opportunities outside the ring that are working for him right now until something big comes along, he's not messing with it. I hope that they have a trilogy fight with him and McGregor. I do too. The only thing I worry about is that neither one of them will be quite as hungry, I guess, as they were when they first fall.

so that would be another just money grab. I don't, yeah, I mean, it definitely would be a big payday for both of them, but I don't know. I want Diaz to win. I'm a big D.S. Between the two, I like D.S. But I just don't know if there's enough on the line for either one of them, really, to get up for it, right? Because they both fought twice, and it's one and one, and that we really need to see a third fight?

I mean, is there, is it really necessary? Yeah. Because depending on who wins, the other ones are going to win for. A lot of time has passed. A lot of time has passed since they fought. And I think that the need or the urge for a trilogy is waning by every day that passes. I agree with that. I had a couple of other things I wanted to touch base with.

A banquet in Vegas, our NASCAR banquet has been consolidated down to two days. It was a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday affair. Now it's going to be a Wednesday, Thursday affair. Probably not a big deal to anybody outside of it. the industry. But I have always wanted the banquet to be moved to Charlotte to the Hall of Fame. And I'm going to count this as a small step in that direction. I would too. Really?

I think next year maybe. Yeah. This is a win for the good guys. They got their second race. They don't need the banquet. Yeah. I really don't know why the bank is in Vegas. But the Hall of Fame is here in Charlotte.

I think that there's enough infrastructure there with the buildings to have the hot, to have the banquet there. It'd be a great way to showcase that particular location is the home of NASCAR. I mean, that's our... I agree. That's where the NASCAR offices are. Plus, it's expensive to fly everybody out there. I mean, you're just spending all this money for flights and hotels. But how great would that be for the city of Charlotte?

Awesome. Yeah. I figured you were excited. You edited the dates on your own calendar down. Oh, I was excited. We want to be there that Friday. We'd get to either stay in Vegas and have a free Friday in Vegas, or we can come on home and have a great weekend. There was also a pretty righteous article that came out.

Really blew up yesterday in the USA Today. Did you see this article? Steve Windsor. Pissed everybody off. Yeah. I liked his, first off, I liked his updates. He's like Eric Jones and Daniel Suarez's names were spelled out. He spelled out.

That wasn't fixed. by the time I looked at it, but he seemed well-informed. It was awful. I don't know. I mean, he said a lot of things that were right as far as Kyle Larson being talented. There was a couple of things that he might have got right, but saying that Kyle doesn't have much of a personality and doesn't give NASCAR enough of an identity, couldn't be further from the truth.

Right. I mean, it's the top guy right now in the top racing series is a guy that loves to race. Like, we've talked about it multiple times. He'll race anything. He just won Monday night. Last night. What else does a race fan want? Somewhere.

Yeah. Some dirt track. I've never heard of the columnist, so I. I couldn't believe it. But boy, did he get under some people's skins. You had Larsen chiming in, a lot of the NASCAR media, the regulars and, Clint Boyer, a bunch of drivers. Mark Martin.

Everybody was pissed off. Rightfully so. And he bashed the crowd on Sunday. The crowd wasn't that bad. Yeah. I mean, everybody knows that it's not the same that it was. The infield was packed. Right.

You guys drove through the infield. Yeah, that was great. The pace lap. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. That was a lot of fun. I think that's just somebody who doesn't like NASCAR, maybe want to take a dig

anyways. Yeah, I think that I think it's just clickbait. Guy just trying to get some hits and he Otherwise, who's going to know or talk about Steve Windsor? He got the job done. All right, now we're going to get to our Ask Junior segment.

As always, we filled questions using the hashtag Ask Junior on Twitter. We're joined by Mike Davis as always. He'll moderate the questions. Dale will answer. I'll offer some other Ingless Insight. I cannot wait to start with this question by Breyer Star 1. Dale Jr., what's one part of Sonoma that you will miss when you're done racing?

You're just looking at me with that grin. Why would you grin at me like that? You think there's some reason I would ask that question first? No, I'd like the town of Petaluma. We always go stay near Petaluma, and we just kind of like visiting some of those small towns right around Sonoma Valley. Like Petaluma are a lot of fun. I thought you were going to say the part where it's over.

No. That's the part you're going to miss. I love Sonoma. It's a great race to watch. I thought this will be the third year I've gone. The last two years I've walked up to the top of those grandstands, and you can see all the way up to the top of the hill and watch them come down the S's. It's actually a cool view.

Have you ever been where T.J. spots? We drove up there last year. It was boring. We left after about five minutes. It's hard to impress Tyler today. Actually, I think they had a huge wreck right at the start of the K&N race, and we didn't feel like... The caution laps are boring because everybody hates when the damn caution comes out.

Yeah. Is that right? We talked about that. What will you miss, Tyler? Let's get your answer in here. Sonoma? I just... I like the race.

It's cool. I don't like to watch it. I never liked it as a fan watching on TV, but it's cool to be there in person and be able to walk around. and be able to walk around to the various turns and whatnot. Gotcha. All right. Good answers. Team Money 333 says,

what is the difference between race trim and qualifying trim, Dale? There's quite a bit. They change a lot of things on the car, tighten the car up. You're going to put tape on it. That's going to change the arrow balance. You're going to change quite a bit of the setup. They may change the springs, rear springs.

They've changed. You're going to run. a little faster, so you're going to travel a little more. You have to might change the front end so it doesn't get on the splitter. And that's a handful of stuff they do. Yeah. Here's a good one. Pair Livens.

Pair Livens. Will you be spending more time on the pit box like Tony does next year? Tony's on pit box? I guess he is. I've seen him a couple times, but I'm sure he's more. I saw him on the grid Sunday walking around. Head shaking out here in the audience. So, yeah, what do you think?

I don't know. I'll see how it goes. I'm not much of a pit bull. box guy, but sometimes I go sit on them. Sometimes I don't know. Where do you think you'll watch the race? Honestly, you know, from the pitch, you don't really see much, but. But you're not going to go sit in the bus and watch it on TV when you could do that at home.

Well, that's what I do. That's what, Xfinity races, I guess, is what they're talking about. Right. I don't really have a pit box in on the pit road on Sunday. We could just, you could invite yourself on anybody's pit box. To be that guy. Yeah. Yeah, I won't be on the pit boxes in Sunday because I don't really have close enough affiliation with any team to do that.

But I think that, I mean, I could go watch on 88. That would be kind of weird. I want to get in their way. They're working. They're going to have people that need those seats. But with the Xfinity races, I just kind of watch TV. Yeah. Here's another good one.

88 NASCAR fans is, look, we know you don't like Sonoma, but how do you? you get ready for Sonoma? Well, I don't know what you mean. What do you mean to get ready? What do you think? Well, you know what? I don't know that there's something you can go do to practice, but let's just say mentally. Let's just say mentally how you do your approach.

We don't do anything. Right. Last year, we got the scissors for being fast on Friday. Yeah. You were like flying fast right off the truck. Car was awesome last Friday. We got the scissors because you get a pair of scissors. I guess it's sponsored by.

Great clips. Great clips. So that was news to everybody. What I've noticed is the less we prepare for the road courses, the less we test, practice, prepare, the better we run when we go to them. Got it. That's been the case. We were working our guts out from years and years and years going to Road to Atlanta,

and testing for days and just endless work trying to get better at the roadcourses. And me and Steve looked at each other one day, me and LaTart, and we said, you know what, we're not getting anywhere doing all this. Let's just not even worry about it. We go how we runs, how we run. And that's when we started running in the top 10. How about that stat that guy tweeted you, where you have the best average finish over the last three years? Did you know that?

I saw the tweet, and I did go and start trying to verify stuff because I think he's way better at roadcoursing racing that he gives himself credit for. And so I always hear his vantage point, and he's like, I don't know how to get around it. But the fact is that he has races that back up the fact that he can get around that damn place. I mean, I don't think I'm terrible at it. I just don't like to do it. I don't get it. I mean, it's just like, I don't know. I get it.

The part I don't like is that you could run good all day. They jam them up on those late restarts, and then you get spun out and, oh, well. Yeah. I think that's a lot of, like, the lower results that you've had, you were running fine, and you get bumped here. Oh, yeah. I mean, in the races with probably 10 to go, we're usually in the top 15 every time I go there.

Yeah. Top 15, top 10. It has to work in our favor, though, for us to have a, you know, I guess that's pretty much for everybody, but I don't know. I don't really look forward to it. It's really a unique discipline. I just love ovals, love short track racing, and it's the farthest thing from that for me.

We've got to have a bike question. Wouldn't be normal. Marathon Rye asks who picks the routes for your bike rides each week at the track? Usually Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy's got a route for pretty much every location. This particular weekend in Michigan, we rode about four miles from the track, and there was a lake that we kind of rode around. There was a road with vacation homes, and it's a real cool area.

It was me, McMurray, and Jimmy and Trevor Bain. Usually it's about four to five or six of us. And then we went and rode me and Greg Ives rode the racetrack Friday evening, which was kind of boring. We actually rode around the racetrack at Pocono, and that was a lot of fun. But for whatever reason, Michigan was really boring riding around it. It looked it on the relive. Go around and round and round.

It was like 17 laps or something? Is that how many you did? We did 15. We did 15 miles, about seven laps. Yeah, I got you. Yeah. And that's what I would have predicted when you told me you were going to do laps around Michigan. I said, that's going to probably be a pretty boring relive.

And it was. Yeah. It was good. But the trip out to that lake and around was a lot of fun. Good. All right. Next question. All right.

Cornwit asked, since Lane Choice is so important these days, what would you think of using the cone rule and cup and Xfinity? And maybe we should explain the cone rule. So the cone rule, they use this at some of the racetracks around the country, some of the short tracks. Basically, the field rolls up to the one-to-go signal, single file. They put a cone on the racetrack, and you decide if you want to start an outside or inside as you get to the cone. So it's not mandatory if you're in third place that you start on the inside. actually start on the outside of the second row if you wanted to. Like Sunday, you probably would have chose outside row too.

Basically, everybody who was in third, fifth, seventh would have chosen the outside line. Yeah. Which I think would be more fair. So bring in the cone rule. I'm good with it. Why not? Plus that presents some more excitement. Yeah, that creates drama.

But then there's probably more debris cautions for more cone choices. Cone, you think? Yeah, you got to throw more debris. caution so you have more because you got such a great opportunity at drama with the cone rule cone decisions it's like oh that guy's going to the bottom yeah I think the cone rule would actually be pretty good at tracks like Michigan where it's I mean you you want to do it everywhere you couldn't just do it week to week but why not I guess it'd be great to bring it in a lot of guys have talked about that over the over the course of the season ever since we've actually went to

double file restarts. It's been a little bit of a topic of conversation that's building some steam. Because we have comedians in the Periscope, people are asking what's the preferred line when you're cycling around the track? The high or the low. Yeah, I don't know. I would say whatever makes the pedal. Don't cycle on the banking. That's probably not. Yeah. Michael Henry, what was your question just now? Oh, which track is worse on bumps? Is it Charlotte or Kentucky? Well, Kentucky just got repaved. Oh, so it's Charlotte. That's the answer. Charlotte

Like Chicago has a bump in turn three and four That's like It feels like it's five foot deep It's violent, right? But it's just one bump Oh he said he meant Old Kentucky by the way All right, okay Old Kentucky was awful

Okay Yeah Old Kentucky was just terrible You had to close your eyes To keep them in your Keep them in your head At some of them bumps You literally were

You know We're afraid your eyes Might come out of your head On the front straight away but Charlotte, the bumps at Charlotte are like, um, ripples. Not giant, you know, crashing hard impact bumps. They're like the ones on the side of the road?

Like, yes. Yeah. That's exactly, and it's the entire length of the track. Wow. Yeah, they never stop. So that's what that, yeah, so when you ease off on the side of the interstate, that's what Charlotte's like the whole track. But it didn't used to, it wasn't like that before the repave.

Nope. Oh. But I remember... That's a feature. I remember reading in an article when they repave Charlotte, and I believe it was Bruton Smith was quoted as saying this, that they did not smooth out the racetrack before they repaved it because they wanted to keep the character that it had.

So that's the one time that I know that they've repaved a racetrack without actually fixing the bumps that were previously there from the old service. So not only did they have bumps when it was repaved, but now we have, you know, the bump. Bumps on bumps. Bumps on bumps. Husker 81 asks, Goodyear makes a great tire.

Good, thank you, because Goodyear's a partner of ours. So why not start trying to make more rain tires? Is it rain in there for what? Road courses? For ovals? Yeah, you would have too much load on an oval, right? I don't know, would you? I think that's why they don't do it.

Or it would be boring. You wouldn't be able to go very fast. I don't think speed really is a factor in whether a race is exciting or not. I mean, you would go to your short track and they go 80 mile an hour, and it's pretty awesome. So why don't they make a... The four cylinders could be just as good a race as a super late model. Why don't they make a rain tire for ovals then? Let's do it.

Okay, there you go. Junior's just wait in. Let's do it. This is what you're going to do post-retirement. Yeah, he's going to be the rain tire engineer. What am I going to do? The rain tire guy. What does he do?

He makes rain tires. I'm going to make the tire. Maybe you test the rain tires. It will be the tester. I'm going to test them. There you go. You just volunteered. Somebody asked just now, what's the difference, or is there a difference in the shifter boxes between Pocono and then the road courses?

There's not any difference. Okay. No difference. Yeah. There we go. This is going to be kind of an embarrassing question for you, Dale. So let's ask it. How do you stay normal being such a famous athlete?

I don't know any other athlete celebrity that seems so generally. normal like you. No, you know how? Because I have to hang out with Tyler. Oh, and you. And you're welcome. And none of y'all let, and my sister, Amy, nobody lets me get away with anything.

So. What do you mean? Y'all keep me in my place. It sounds like you're saying we're kind of, like, assholeish. Or that we're preventing you from being assholish. Yeah, that's what you are. You think.

Well, okay. You think that. More of that then. You think if we weren't around that you would become Yeah, I think if I had, you know, if I, it just depends on, I think, like if everyone catered. I'm surrounded by people that are like, yeah, we're not letting you get away with that. And, yeah. But that's a good thing, right?

Absolutely. You know, I think this guy is trying to compliment me. He was. He was. I think that it has a lot to do. But we don't want to let him compliment you. I'm not taking credit. I'm trying not taking credit for it because I could just as easily have turned out to be a real jackass if I had been.

spending my time around different people that were allowing that, I guess. I have a different answer to this, by the way. Mike's probably going to... And when he says different, he means the right answer. I was about to compliment you. Do you want to hear it? Sure. I disagree with you. I think that you make sure you are yourself and we can't, we don't want to,

but we also wouldn't be able to change you if we wanted to. Does that make sense? Yes, I understand. You stay true. to yourself. In fact, there's a word for that. You're organic. Oh, organic. That's an inside joke. He hates the word organic. So if you ever see him, just throw out in a couple organics. I don't hate the word. This thing's really overused here lately. Yeah. It's a, it's a word that's used in today's society. Yeah. Yeah. But I just think that Dale stays true to himself. In fact, it worries me that when he's now

officially retired, I mean, who is a real true authentic to the core? who hasn't let kind of corporate America kind of start affecting their decisions that's still in NASCAR. Like even the young guys, they sort of have to play the game more than... I think, like, Brad Kuzlowski. Boy, yeah, Brad. Brad is a good answer. You're right. Kyle Busch.

He is not going to change. Kyle Busch is not going to change. You're right. All right. I stand corrected on that part. But the younger guys need to. Who's an authentic guy that's not a jerk? I'm kidding, Brad and Kyle.

I'm totally kidding. You don't have to say that. Yeah, I do want to say that. Do they listen to the show? I don't know. They would this one time. Brad comes off as the kind of guy that just soaks up any type of opinion and information that he possibly can soak in and then refute it. Yeah.

But he's going to refute it after being educated on it. Oh, yeah. From Google University. If you love Dale Jr., then Exaltor Racing is your go-to social media account on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It brings you Insiders info all weekend long on the 88 team. It's at Exaltar Racing, a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan. All right, so looking ahead, Tuesday, that's today. We got production work with Nationwide.

We're going to be doing that at HMS. I thought I was going to be interviewing the team. That's how it was originally positioned. And now it's changed to where I'm just doing some lead-ins and someone else is getting to have the fun. Yeah. Yeah. What the hell? They changed it.

Who? We'll blame Hendrick. I wanted to interview the guys now I'm not. Well, we had to change the time around. So there are meetings and all kinds of stuff. No fun. Yeah. It happens.

So, yeah, also on Tuesday, we do our competition meetings at Hendrick. And we're also doing Blaney's podcast, which is, I guess that comes out the same day. I think it comes out either tomorrow or Thursday. They're not as proactive as we are in putting ours out quickly. You know we're going to see them later. I know, but they're not going to hear this before we see. So you're going to bash them. Thursday, nationwide appearance, and Raleigh, North Carolina, what's that all about?

There's a new office, and we're just going to visit the folks up there. Cool. It's one of their regional offices. And then leaving there, we're going to Sonoma. Sonoma. Yeah. Have a team dinner. Thursday night.

Team dinner. And then Friday, we've got two practices at one at 3 p.m. And then at 6.30. That's Eastern time. So whenever you're out there, it'll be noon. Goodness. Yeah. Saturday qualifying is at 245 Eastern.

Or 1145 if you're at the track. And then Sunday, the race is at 3 p.m. Eastern. On Fox Sports 1. That's right. That's a reasonable 3 p.m. start time. Yeah. So that's it. I hope we didn't get ourselves in too much trouble, Tyler.

We didn't. If we did, I'll edit it. Okay. All right. See you next week. The Dale Jr. download and all Dirtymoe radio podcasts are made possible by Exalta. You can subscribe to all eight programs on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and all major podcasting outlets. As always, you can listen to Dirtymoor radio podcast on Dale Jr.com.

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